I take my coffee with three sugars.
Sep. 15th, 2010 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleIt is clearly not news to anyone that I am dependent on caffeine. THAT is not what I feel like talking about, now, though. Instead I'm going to talk about my weight.
Given my build, my healthy weight range is from 145-175, or maaaaybe 150-180. Until I was twenty-one I never even touched the upper boundaries of that range -- my metabolism was high enough that I literally had to eat four meals a day to keep myself from losing weight. When I turned 21 I was at 160, which was pretty much ideal for me.
From June 2005 to December 2008 I put on roughly one pound every month. Less in the middle of summer, more in the holiday season, but the end result was that at the end of 2008 I was between 205 and 210 pounds. Being a little overweight didn't bother me, but that was just enough that I became winded more easily, sweated more, and spent just enough extra physical energy moving around that I could do less of anything else than i was used to. Now, I know that this does not constitute a serious weight problem and that a good many people have it far worse than me. But at that time, realizing that every time I put on a pair of pants I wound up with a sore red band around my waist at the end of the day, I had had enough, and I made a New Years' Resolution.
Not to lose weight. But to stop drinking pop. For seven months I did not drink soda so much as once, and since that point, while I have wavered and fallen off the wagon from time to time, I have mostly stuck to the rule that I have pop every now and again in restaurants, limit my refills, and at home I drink coffee to get my fix.
The coffee thing was hard to adjust to -- to some extent I had acquired the taste, but when I began the switch I needed 5-7 sugars per cup to make it taste good to me. Thaaaaat was at least as much as there was in a can of pop, so I whittled it down, until now I'm at about 2 and a half.
Since I stopped drinking pop I have not gained any weight.
I have not LOST a significant amount -- month to month it changes, seemingly stuck in a range between 200 and 210 -- 195 to 205 if I'm lucky. But that extra critical mass ( ha ha) seems to have come entirely from pop.
Probably, if I cut down on cheese and butter, I could start actually making a dent in this doughy tire that hangs around my waist. But to be honest I would rather be a little chubby than give up parmesan.
Given my build, my healthy weight range is from 145-175, or maaaaybe 150-180. Until I was twenty-one I never even touched the upper boundaries of that range -- my metabolism was high enough that I literally had to eat four meals a day to keep myself from losing weight. When I turned 21 I was at 160, which was pretty much ideal for me.
From June 2005 to December 2008 I put on roughly one pound every month. Less in the middle of summer, more in the holiday season, but the end result was that at the end of 2008 I was between 205 and 210 pounds. Being a little overweight didn't bother me, but that was just enough that I became winded more easily, sweated more, and spent just enough extra physical energy moving around that I could do less of anything else than i was used to. Now, I know that this does not constitute a serious weight problem and that a good many people have it far worse than me. But at that time, realizing that every time I put on a pair of pants I wound up with a sore red band around my waist at the end of the day, I had had enough, and I made a New Years' Resolution.
Not to lose weight. But to stop drinking pop. For seven months I did not drink soda so much as once, and since that point, while I have wavered and fallen off the wagon from time to time, I have mostly stuck to the rule that I have pop every now and again in restaurants, limit my refills, and at home I drink coffee to get my fix.
The coffee thing was hard to adjust to -- to some extent I had acquired the taste, but when I began the switch I needed 5-7 sugars per cup to make it taste good to me. Thaaaaat was at least as much as there was in a can of pop, so I whittled it down, until now I'm at about 2 and a half.
Since I stopped drinking pop I have not gained any weight.
I have not LOST a significant amount -- month to month it changes, seemingly stuck in a range between 200 and 210 -- 195 to 205 if I'm lucky. But that extra critical mass ( ha ha) seems to have come entirely from pop.
Probably, if I cut down on cheese and butter, I could start actually making a dent in this doughy tire that hangs around my waist. But to be honest I would rather be a little chubby than give up parmesan.
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Date: 2010-09-16 06:22 am (UTC)So if you're 60, being a little overweight is a sign that you don't have an illness that makes you lose large amounts of weight and can kill you quickly. If you're 30, those illnesses have much lower incidence and the extra weight isn't doing you any good. But merely being overweight, not obese, can be nearly harmless, if you're active and don't eat a lot of crap.
I say this as someone who is 10 lb over ideal, as calculated by height and frame size (BMI says I'm OK, but that doesn't take into account that I have a freakishly small frame and am 6" shorter than normal and upper-normal BMIs are too much for very short folks.) I should lose those 10, but if I don't, as long as I don't gain more, it's not a medical catastrophe.